Whole
by Oparu
Summary: The Evil Queen meets Lily and knows she is hers. Written for the Split Queen prompt of Dragon Queen Week on Tumblr. Vague spoilers for s6.


She traces Lily's chin, staring at her as if she could strip everything away and see directly into her heart. "You're mine," she whispers, this woman who is not Regina, but wears her face.

Lily takes a step back but she follows, getting closer, staring, almost _hungry_.

"I don't care what she says," she murmurs. "You're mine."

* * *

Mom shudders when she tells her. She nods, pulls Lily in and hugs her tight. "You are hers, but Regina's too. If they're two people, then they share you."

It makes a perverse sense. Lily's twisted, unlucky, and she always makes bad decisions, the dark wants her.

The dark is her mother.

The Queen gave more to her making than Regina. More of the Queen's fire burns in her. That also rings true. The Queen's eyes met hers, and Lily knew her, more than she knows Regina.

Regina is soft, heroic, more like Emma than Lily. She crumples when Mom explains what the Queen wants; that she's decided the prize of her leaving Storybrooke alone, will be Lily.

Mom stands beside her, her hand on her shoulder. That hand never wavers, never moves, while the town debates around them.

"If that's all she wants, why don't we give her to the Queen? It's not like she wants Henry."

"She's a dragon, she can defend herself."

"Maybe she's just lonely."

The words blend together, all suggesting Lily go with her mother.

Mom doesn't argue with them. Mom only stands at her side, steady.

"Will she hurt me?" Lily whispers while the argument continues.

"She never hurt me." Mom's far away, lost in memory. "Not physically."

"Should I go with her?"

Mom looks at her then, her eyes wet, liquid. "Not unless you want to."

"Would you go with her?"

"Oh my darling," Mom pauses, kissing her forehead, then her cheek. "I did. I loved her."

Lily glances at Regina where she stands, in front of the all these people clamoring for their deliverance from her other half. Regina seems small for the first time since Lily's known her. She seems brave, appears powerful, but she's afraid of her other half, of what the queen might do.

"I'll go with her," Lily offers, stopping the discussion dead. The Town Hall echoes like a tomb. "If I'm what she wants, I'll go with her."

* * *

"You're not being banished," Regina starts, her hands folded over her chest. "You can come and go as you please. Both of you."

Mom's going with her, of course, but what Mom does is no concern of the town's.

"We understand," Mom answers, when Lily does not. She doesn't understand any fucking part of this. Regina breaks herself into two, one of them holds the whole fucking town hostage and suddenly she's going with her, to the part of the woods they've given her.

Mom too, because Mom wants to be with her.

So, it seems does the other one.

"You-" Regina starts and stops, staring at Mom. Her controls gone, this half-Regina can't even hide how much she loves her. Her heart's naked, like Mom's always is.

"We will do this for you," Mom says.

She leans closer, touches Regina's chin. Their lips are close enough that they could be kissing, but they don't. The tension between them sizzles, and Lily can sense it, like embers begging for oxygen, biding their time.

* * *

The peace last two days, almost three, before the Queen's angry, vicious and the argument turns to tossing fire. Lily stands behind her mother, the saner one, protecting behind a shield that Mom conjured like it was nothing.

The Queen laughs, eyes bright, insane with emotion. "Don't you remember, Maleficent? Love is weakness. You're coddling her, making her weak, like you."

Lily slips her hand into her mother's, adding her power to hers, and the shield shimmers, smooth and unbroken.

"There's no weakness in this," Mom promises. "You'd know that, if you were the half that got the brain."

They sneer at each other, the Queen so close that the shield crackles, straining not from magic, but merely from the way they look at each other. Lily felt that, between her and Regina, knew something was there, but between this half, it's so potent that it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

* * *

And it stays that way as the days pass. They fight, screaming at each other, throwing magic, burning trees, destroying rocks, but they never manage to hurt each other. The Queen's fireballs melt off of Mom's scales, and Mom always has a shield ready, or she steps aside.

The Queen's rage crashes into Mom's patience over and over, waves of a hurricane thrashing against a retaining wall. Mom will outlast her, but Lily doesn't know what that means for any of them.

After a week, the Queen doesn't notice Lily's departures, can't keep track of her movements, and she could do what she wanted, she could run, but she doesn't.

There's something here, something Mom sees that Lily doesn't get, will never fucking get, because the Queen is crazy.

So is Mom, in her way. In time, the fighting is less, and one night she watches them sit side by side without speaking. That night, Mom tells her stay away, and in the morning, the Queen is less- whatever it is that she is.

"You can't love her," Lily asks as they sit on the cliffside, watching the sea.

"Why not?"

"She's-" Lily stops, sighs, because she knows what the answer is. "She's evil."

"I don't mind the darkness."

"I know, I know," they've had that conversation but no matter how many times it repeats and what forms it takes, that never makes sense. "Why not?"

"Because it's in all of us. We are fire, and that can mean destruction, death, suffering, or light, heat and warmth, humans are the same. They can be greedy, scheming, untrustworthy, or gentle and full of affection. She only sees the Queen, the darkness, and perhaps that's all she is, but she's Regina, and I love her."

"You love the other one, the nice one."

Mom shakes her head. "I love this one too, she's just a little more difficult."

"They're not the same person, they can't be."

She gets that faraway look, and smiles. "You'll understand."

Lily leans against her shoulder. "Is she right?"

"Right about what, dear?"

"Am I hers?"

Mom wraps her arm around her shoulders. "Regina was different when we kindled you, yes, she was angry, full of bitterness and revenge, but she was still her."

"And you love her."

"As I love you."

Lily turns, wrapping her arms around her and holding her tight. "I love you too." She doesn't get it yet, but maybe there's something to this waiting game.


End file.
